Michigan vs. Wisconsin Awards

Michigan vs. Wisconsin Awards


October 3, 2016

Ryan Glasgow (#96, image via Oakland Press)

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Jabrill Peppers. Peppers played some Wildcat quarterback and flipped the ball to Jehu Chesson on a reverse, but he didn’t register in the offensive stat book. Michigan struggled to score points and averaged a mediocre 4.0 yards/carry, taking a 7-7 lead into the fourth quarter before scoring the game-winning touchdown with fewer than eight minutes left. So far this year, Peppers has 2 carries for 24 yards. Maybe Michigan doesn’t need him much against Rutgers next week, but they will need his contributions down the road.

Hit the jump for more on the Wisconsin game.





Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Juwann Bushell-Beatty. Michigan may not have much of a choice now that starting left tackle Grant Newsome is hurt, but Jim Harbaugh acknowledged in the pre-season that freshman Ben Bredeson was pushing Newsome for playing time. Maybe Bredeson didn’t enter the game because he had been practicing at guard to help supplement the contributions of an injured Ben Braden, but now Braden appears to be healthy. Perhaps Bredeson should bump out to start at left tackle, because Bushell-Beatty looked unready to be a full-time player and I don’t really think he was expected to be starting as a redshirt sophomore. I will acknowledge that he has cleaned up some of his technique, as well as his physique, but he still has a way to go.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . David Long. Or Lavert Hill. Or Keith Washington. Whoever the next cornerback is on the depth chart, I think Michigan needs to start getting him reps. That guy is one pulled hamstring or twisted ankle away from having to play. Right now that guy is Brandon Watson, but Watson is also out there in the slot at times already. I don’t think Michigan should have extended the bench on Saturday, but this week against Rutgers (which is expected to be a comfortable win for Michigan), I would like to see someone get more reps.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Peppers. Give him a bit of a rest, at least if the game situation allows. The same goes for offense. He probably wants to show off in front of his home-state Rutgers and a lot of local guys, but I think Michigan should be smart with him so they can keep him fresh down the stretch.

Play of the game . . . Jourdan Lewis’s interception. This ended any chance Wisconsin had of coming back, and it was a thing of beauty:

 

MVP of the game . . . Ryan Glasgow. Glasgow played an excellent game inside, and he was a big reason Wisconsin ended the game with a season-low 71 rushing yards and a season-low 159 total yards of offense. Glasgow finished with 5 tackles, .5 tackles for loss, .5 sacks, and 1 pass knockdown. Those are pretty good numbers for a nose tackle, but he also cluttered things up in the middle and allowed Michigan’s defensive ends and linebackers to clean up. Wisconsin’s style of offense plays right into Glasgow’s strengths, and he didn’t miss his chance to impact the game.

30 comments

  1. Comments: 1356
    Joined: 8/13/2015
    Roanman
    Oct 03, 2016 at 7:06 AM

    Let’s see less of this guy on offense?

    Kenny Allen.

    I his defense he just crushed a couple punts. Of the two I thought were not great hits, one looked to be a pooch-ish hit. At least one other hit looked like he hit a coverage target right on the button.

    All three jobs at this level is a heavy burden. I say, let’s help poor Kenny by just sticking it in the end zone.

    • Comments: 183
      Joined: 9/3/2015
      suduri xusai
      Oct 03, 2016 at 1:08 PM

      special teams. and yes, the kicking game needs some work. should’ve been 20-7.

  2. Comments: 117
    Joined: 9/28/2015
    PapaBear
    Oct 03, 2016 at 7:56 AM

    Not trying to be sarcastic, but why is Kenny Allen so over burdened by doing all of the kicking/punting duties? Seriously, I do not understand.

    You’d think a guy would be more locked in.

    Does the leg get tired like a pitcher with a pitch count?

    • Comments: 522
      Joined: 8/12/2015
      DonAZ
      Oct 03, 2016 at 8:06 AM

      This is a good question … I’ve wondered the same.

      Of all the positions on the team, kicker has to be one of the *least* physically taxing.

      Maybe the argument is each duty has a different set of kicking mechanics, and by doing all three a player never gets really good at any one. If that’s the case, then why not find someone who can boom it on kickoffs — perhaps not all that accurately — and move Allen to just punting (which he’s very good at) and FGs?

      Or maybe the argument that all three is “too much” is really a nice way of saying Allen’s FG abilities are average at best, and they’re laying the groundwork to bring someone else in … provided they can find him.

      • Comments: 3844
        Joined: 7/13/2015
        Oct 03, 2016 at 8:19 AM

        Who’s going to boom it deep on kickoffs? Nordin is hurt. Andrew David is gone. I saw the walk-ons kick in the spring, and they couldn’t get it that deep. In fact, Foug kicked off earlier this year and is averaging under 58 yards/kick with 2 touchbacks on 7 attempts. Allen has 19 touchbacks on 32 attempts. So you go from 60% touchbacks to less than 30%. We don’t have a ton of options.

        • Comments: 522
          Joined: 8/12/2015
          DonAZ
          Oct 03, 2016 at 8:52 AM

          >> Who’s going to boom it deep on kickoffs?

          Peppers? 😉

          I don’t know the roster well enough to know if there’s some player — perhaps not normally a kicker — who has the ability to just whack the ball a long way downfield.

          But in any event, it seems the issue is not FG vs. Kickoff, but kicking vs. punting. So the best answer would be to move Allen to full-time punting duties and find someone to do kicking.

          And perhaps the (sad) answer there is: “We ain’t got nobody.”

        • Comments: 6285
          Joined: 8/11/2015
          Lanknows
          Oct 03, 2016 at 11:04 AM

          Agreed. Clearly they did try to have the ‘easiest’ and most injury-inducing role go to someone else and we have a big enough sample size to know it’s a downgrade.

          Perhaps you argue it’s one you live with… until it means you are giving some of OSU’s 5-star skill talent an extra chance to score.

    • Comments: 3844
      Joined: 7/13/2015
      Oct 03, 2016 at 8:07 AM

      I think a certain amount of fatigue may kick in, but I’m not sure if that’s what’s going on here. Keep in mind that most college kickers spend their entire practice kicking (kickoffs or extra points/field goals) or punting. Some do punts/kickoffs while others do field goals only. Some do kickoffs/placekicking while ignoring punting altogether. But it’s pretty rare for someone to do all of those phases. Doing just one of those things (especially placekicking, IMO) can be very stressful, but this guy is now splitting his practice time between all three phases, not to mention onside kicks, pooch punts, etc.

      Some guys are capable, but it’s also important to keep in mind that Allen was brought in as a punter and didn’t kick at all until Harbaugh got here in the spring of 2015. After high school, he spent three years mostly working on punting, so placekicking isn’t/wasn’t his forte.

    • Comments: 6
      Joined: 12/29/2015
      oakapple
      Oct 03, 2016 at 9:24 AM

      Why does Kenny Allen have all three kicking jobs? It’s easy: no one is better.

      Jim Harbaugh has said multiple times, that he would rather not put so much of a burden on one player. So you’ve got to figure they’ve tried other guys in practice, and Allen keeps beating them out.

      Certainly, the one FG attempt we saw from Tice did not inspire confidence, although there are rumors he has been making them in practice. I think Tice will continue to get the chance to take the job, but he has to earn it.

      The situation is odd, because Allen is still performing reasonably well on punts and kickoffs, so you know leg strength is not the issue. The FGs he is missing are not long ones.

  3. Comments: 1863
    Joined: 1/19/2016
    je93
    Oct 03, 2016 at 8:44 AM

    Yes, please let’s see more of Jabril on offense, and less on D… get him done rest before ohio!

  4. Comments: 48
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Nick.
    Oct 03, 2016 at 10:27 AM

    I gotta disagree with you here Thunder.

    Less of this guy on offense has to be Allen. If he can’t consistently kick field goals then the team needs to look at replacing him with someone……even if there really isn’t someone to replace him with. He is a wonderful punter and kickoff guy, but not so great at the field goals. Peppers will get his turn and if they are just using him a decoy for now…..let’s roll with it. He is obviously a game changer.

    Less of this guy on defense has to be one of the starting linebackers (besides Peppers). Just as we need Peppers to rest we need the LB’s to rest as well. The workload has been huge for guys who have been playing. This last game we needed everyone we could to help stop the offense. Nobody really needed to play less on defense.

    • Comments: 3844
      Joined: 7/13/2015
      Oct 03, 2016 at 10:48 PM

      Fair enough on Allen. I wasn’t really considering a special teams guy, but it would be nice to see less of him.

  5. Comments: 6285
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Lanknows
    Oct 03, 2016 at 10:48 AM

    Playing Peppers less on defense so you can play him more on offense doesn’t make much sense to me. I

    ‘d like Peppers’ duties to be limited over the next 3 weeks. I do want him to play some offense, but continue in the decoy role until MSU. It’s just not worth the risk for one of our 2 or 3 most important players.

    Peppers indicated the read-option plays were indeed reads on his part, so it’s not a matter of playcalling so much as the defense paying attention to Peppers.

    • Comments: 3844
      Joined: 7/13/2015
      Oct 03, 2016 at 10:51 PM

      My position is the same as always on Peppers: Play him on offense if you need him. Michigan could have used him on Saturday, because it took until a little less than eight minutes remaining in the game before they scored the game-winner.

      If Michigan doesn’t need him on offense to beat Rutgers, Indiana, etc., then don’t play him. I acknowledge that the zone reads would have allowed him to keep the ball, but that’s a pretty easy play to defend Peppers on if you know what’s coming.

  6. Comments: 6285
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    Lanknows
    Oct 03, 2016 at 11:00 AM

    Let’s see more of: Newsome. fingers crossed it’s not too bad.

    Let’s see more of (2): new plays. If Harbaugh’s track record is indicative of anything, he’ll put some plays out there that’ll never be seen again, just to get future opponents thinking about it.

    Let’s see more of (3): Tice or Nordin. Asking Allen to handle all the kicking duties never seemed like a good idea. Now’s the chance to get other guys some live opportunities.

    Let’s see less of: every single senior starter (for the next 3 weeks). All eyes on the end of the month. I’ll include Peppers, McCray, Hill, and Hurst too.

    Agree on Hill/Long/Washington. With Clark gone they get ‘promoted’. Also want to see some LBs (Furbush, Bush, etc.) and even some DL (Marshall and any other non-freshman).

    As for offense, I hope Crawford and McDoom get more snaps. If nothing else, it’ll make WCB a little less grumpy. JBB, Kugler, Bredeson, Dawson hopefully all see some snaps too so we can get a handle on this LT situation.

    Hopefully these next 2 games are comfortable wins and Michigan coaches and players are able to look ahead to MSU and beyond.

    • Comments: 1364
      Joined: 8/11/2015
      WindyCityBlue
      Oct 03, 2016 at 1:34 PM

      McDoom and Crawford are not who we should have been looking to for more pass-catching production this year. As I’ve said before, it’s not easy for true freshmen to contribute significantly at WR, and you shouldn’t ever expect it. You can give them snaps, and run them around out there against a defense, but running good routes, getting open and making plays is another matter. Frankly, anything we get from those guys is gravy. The bigger disappointments as far as player development are Ways and Harris, who have been in the program for long enough to expect more from them. Ditto for Bunting and Wheatley. For all the hype our TE lineup has received, there really is no depth there in terms of pass-catching. Is it a gigantic worry at this point? No. But if we’re still seeing little from anybody but our starters against a couple of upcoming cupcakes, then it starts to be concerning, at least looking ahead to next year. You’d like to have someone else at least showing some promise and playmaking ability.

      • Comments: 6285
        Joined: 8/11/2015
        Lanknows
        Oct 03, 2016 at 2:54 PM

        True freshman contribute at WR all the time. Hasn’t happened a ton at Michigan but it’s not a rarity.

        Ways and Harris both looked fine last year and are probably better this year. They’ve just been passed by better players. That those better players are younger is a good thing, not a bad thing.

        That perfectly capable, if unexceptional, WRs are sitting at #6 or 7 on the depth chart is a testament to what an excellent situation we have at WR.

        • Comments: 6285
          Joined: 8/11/2015
          Lanknows
          Oct 03, 2016 at 2:58 PM

          Butt is getting all the TE targets because he is Jake freaking Butt.

          Same comment on Wheatley as Ways/Harris, except Wheatley is a RS Freshman. He got passed by Asiasi who looks very good for a true freshman and appears on track for greatness. Bunting has been fine too.

          TE is probably the position I worry about least on the entire roster, for this year and next.

          • Comments: 6285
            Joined: 8/11/2015
            Lanknows
            Oct 03, 2016 at 3:00 PM

            Worrying about this is kind of like worrying about FB carries last year.

  7. Comments: 117
    Joined: 9/28/2015
    PapaBear
    Oct 03, 2016 at 12:09 PM

    I am sure that most of you saw the Rub route on (Stribling when Wheelright….I believe) caught a passing a crossing route for a first down? How is this not called? Everyone runs a ‘rub route,’ but not to this degree. Stribling was taken out of the play completely!

    Help?

    • Comments: 6285
      Joined: 8/11/2015
      Lanknows
      Oct 03, 2016 at 2:55 PM

      egregious missed call

  8. Comments: 183
    Joined: 9/3/2015
    suduri xusai
    Oct 03, 2016 at 1:12 PM

    I thought JBB improved a lot, too, but definitely wants to see Bredeson at LT and JBB as a reserve. We have Rutgers and then a week off so hopely the coaches can figure all these things out, plus getting Lavert HIll and David Long ready for play time. Hopely the game will be over by halftime so a lot of new guys can get some playtime and overworked guys can rest a bit.

  9. Comments: 1364
    Joined: 8/11/2015
    WindyCityBlue
    Oct 03, 2016 at 1:20 PM

    More on offense-Chesson..again. He’s off to the same slow start he was last year. Whether it’s nagging injuries, lack of chemistry with Speight or something else, I don’t know, but his production is well behind Darboh’s after 5 games, with the numbers very similar to 2015. He broke out huge the final 8 games last season, so hopefully the same trend will continue.

    • Comments: 6285
      Joined: 8/11/2015
      Lanknows
      Oct 03, 2016 at 3:01 PM

      Agreed. They need to get Chesson the damn ball. This is on Speight as much as anyone else IMO. He’s too Darboh-focused.

      • Comments: 1364
        Joined: 8/11/2015
        WindyCityBlue
        Oct 03, 2016 at 4:37 PM

        Maybe so, but if you look at their numbers after 5 games last year, they show the same trend as this year, with Darboh well out in front in both cases, but both more productive this year:

        2015 Darboh: 23/269/2
        2015 Chesson: 11/106/0

        2016 Darboh: 23/335/5
        2016 Chesson: 13/197/0

        Was Ruddock too Darboh-focused as well? If so, that may say more about Chesson and Darboh than about the QBs. In any case, as noted, Chesson broke out big after a slow start last year, with 39 catches for 658 yards and 9 TDs in the last 8 games.

        • Comments: 6285
          Joined: 8/11/2015
          Lanknows
          Oct 03, 2016 at 5:17 PM

          Targets are more telling, but I think you have a point. Does that make it OK? Chesson shouldn’t have to ’emerge’ again. Do we really need to learn the same lesson?

          Last year targets went Darboh/Chesson/Butt: 96/80/76.
          That means that after game 5 Chesson was the top target – since Darboh and Chesson had a big lead through the first 5 games (per Mgoblog Maryland UFR) yet Chesson caught Butt and almost Darboh.

          This year so far it’s 39/26/31. Proportionally speaking that’s a huge change from the 2nd half of last year (i.e., when Michigan figured out what the hell it was doing in the passing game).

          *MgoBlog UFR for 2015 Maryland

          • Comments: 1364
            Joined: 8/11/2015
            WindyCityBlue
            Oct 03, 2016 at 6:10 PM

            I figured targets might be a better measure, but I was frankly too lazy to look them up, and I found the similarity in catch stats from last year to be interesting, too. I also note that YPC this year is better for both Darboh and Chesson after 5 games, significantly so for Chesson (though on a not-too-large sample size), so he is getting the ball further downfield, even if not as often as we’d like. Overall YPA is also notably better for Speight through 5 games than for Ruddock (7.5 vs 6.5). The question now is, how close is Speight to his ceiling?

        • Comments: 6285
          Joined: 8/11/2015
          Lanknows
          Oct 03, 2016 at 5:30 PM

          I think maybe they tried a little more this game – the early targets went to Chesson more it seemed. But when Speight is pressed it seems he favors Darboh.

          Could also be explained by quality of CBs since the game where we saw this most seemed to be Colorado and they had their elite DB on Chesson most of the game.

          It’s not a major worry, but I do think they need to get the ball in the hands of their most dangerous playmaker more often.

          • Comments: 3844
            Joined: 7/13/2015
            Oct 03, 2016 at 10:57 PM

            I know you’ve probably seen me say this previously, but I honestly think Chesson is just not the most natural receiver. He fights the ball at times, he’s not a great route runner, and he sometimes stumbles and trips all over himself. He’s fast and strong and tough, but he needs time with his QB to get on the same page. Some people are saying he’s a very good NFL prospect, but he’s raw in a lot of ways. I think he’s worth a look because he’s 6’3″, speedy, and can block, but he’s got some Darryl Stonum in him (minus the drinking problems) when it comes to ball skills.

            • Comments: 6285
              Joined: 8/11/2015
              Lanknows
              Oct 04, 2016 at 11:12 AM

              A) I think you’re probably right given he didn’t play football until later than most IIRC.

              B) Those weaknesses (to the extent they matter) haven’t manifest in terms of productivity. Michigan has a higher success rate on throws to Chesson this year and last. Catch rate between him and Darboh is about equal (small edge to Chesson last year and Darboh this year). Neither of the WR have as high efficiency as passes to Butt.

              C) The difference here is targets. If route running is the difference then Speight would be throwing to open guys instead of Chesson but he’s throwing it to Darboh even when Darboh is covered. Those “speculative” passes should be going Chesson’s way as much as Darbohs IMO, but it does make sense that Speight is more comfortable throwing them to Darboh since Chesson missed much of the offseason.

              D) My point is that the coaching staff should be making this a point of emphasis — to get Chesson the ball more. I think they did that last year and the offense benefited from it.

              E) Being raw doesn’t affect your NFL stock too much IMO. I think scouts see that and think “room for improvement” and “higher ceiling”. I get what you are saying about Stonum, but I think that he’s already exibited far better ball skills, instincts, and toughness than Stonum ever did.

              I still expect Chesson to bust out in several games this year and get drafted pretty highly. This early season mini-funk has been a surprise disappointment. I tend to put most of that on the QB, but I could be wrong. We’ll see how things go.

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